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Photo by Robert T. Maytum
Photo Courtesy of Robert T. Maytum
Hooded Merganser
Lophodytes cucullatus
NatureServe conservation status
Global (G-rank): G5
State (S-rank): S3N
External links
General information
The hooded merganser, Lophodytes cucullatus, is a fish-eating duck equipped with a long thin bill that has sharp serrated edges along the sides. Only the heads of the males are adorned with the characteristic fan-shaped crest. Breeding occurs in southeastern Alaska and much of southern Canada, as well as in the northwestern, north-central, and eastern United States. Main wintering areas include the coasts of North America, as well as the eastern and southeastern United States. Hooded mergansers occasionally reside in Utah during the summer, and infrequently migrate through the state in the fall and spring. They prefer forested areas, and usually nest in forested wetland areas.
Hooded mergansers are proficient divers and swimmers, which allows them to quickly seize mobile prey items such as fish, crayfish, and insects. Unlike other ducks, hooded mergansers appear to have special optic properties that allow them excellent underwater vision. Both males and females participate in a courtship display involving elaborate movements of the head. A monogamous pair bond is formed, and the female selects a nesting cavity, usually in a dead tree. The female builds the nest using material found in the cavity. She then plucks her own down to line the cavity. The female incubates her six to twelve spherical eggs for about one month; the male abandons the female shortly after she begins incubating the eggs. Just 24 hours after hatching, the ducklings will leap from the nest and begin feeding themselves. The female continues to care for the young for several weeks. The young are able to fly after about 70 days.
Species range
BREEDS: southeastern Alaska, central British Columbia, and southwestern Alberta south to southwestern Oregon, central Idaho, and northwestern Montana; and from central Saskatchewan to Nova Scotia, south to southeastern Kansas, northern Louisiana, northern Georgia, and (rarely) Florida. WINTERS: along Pacific, Atlantic, and Gulf slopes, mainly from southeastern Alaska to northern Baja California, and New England to Florida and west to northern Mexico, irregularly in the interior of southern Canada and the U.S., and in the northern Bahamas and Greater Antilles (AOU 1983); rare in Hawaii.
Migration
In the east, northward migration occurs mainly in February-May. Returns to breeding areas in west mostly in late March-April. In the east, southward migration occurs mostly in September-December. Most movement to wintering areas occurs in November in the west.
Habitat
Streams, lakes, swamps, marshes, and estuaries; winters mostly in freshwater but also regularly in estuaries and sheltered bays (AOU 1983). Nests usually in tree cavities in forested regions near water, often near fast-flowing streams (AOU 1983), also forest ponds and lakes, flooded forest, riverside swamps. See Zicus (1990) for information on successful use of nest boxes in Minnesota.
Food habits
Eats mostly small fishes, crayfishes and other crustaceans, and aquatic insects obtained by diving underwater (Palmer 1976).
Reproductive characteristics
Clutch size is 6-18 (some nests may include eggs of wood duck or goldeneye in some areas). Incubation lasts 29-37 days, by female. Young first fly at estimated age of 10 weeks. First breeds at about 2 years (Terres 1980, Palmer 1976). Nesting is dispersed; in Minnesota, installation of nest boxes produced a nesting density of about 0.4 nests per sq km (Zicus 1990).
Threats or limiting factors
Vulnerable to forestry practices that limit or eliminate potential nesting sites.
References
- Dugger, D. B., K. M. Dugger, and L. H. Fredickson. 1994. Hooded Merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus). Birds of North America 98.
- Hayward, C. L., Cottam, C., Woodbury, A. M., and H. H. Frost. 1976. Birds of Utah. In Great Basin Naturalist Memoirs, No. 1 (Wood, S. L. and K. T. Harper, eds.). Brigham Young University, Provo, UT.
- Peterson, R. T. 1966. A field guide to western birds, second edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, MA.
